Subscribe to this blog

Follow by Email

Posts

Disney's in-house animation studio has been creating magic all throughout this decade. They successfully revived the princess musical with Tangledand took it several notches higher with Frozen. On the other hand, Disney has continued to tell somewhat offbeat stories, with Wreck-It Ralph, Big Hero 6 and Zootopia. In recent years, Disney Animation has returned to its roots with fantastic stories that continue to push the envelope, memorable new characters, and ever advancing standards of computer animation.

2016 was a rare year for Disney, as they released not just one but two original animated features. Zootopia, released in March, has gone on to become a surprise hit, grossing over $1 billion worldwide, a rare feat for an original animated film, and only the second animated film do do so after Disney's beloved Frozen. Disney's second animated film this year is Moana, which, just like Tangled and Frozen, returns to the kind of film that makes Disney iconic: the female-cent…

"Oh my gosh, that girl is so fake.""Dude, can you believe what that guy is wearing? Farm boy!""I heard he sings along to musicals and wears a lot of pink. He must be gay!""Has she ever even taken a shower? She is so disgusting.""Eww, he's looking my way. He's so pathetic."
These are just a few samples of many, many such statements I have heard in the past. These 'judgments', as I'd like to call them, have been made by classmates, colleagues, friends, cousins, relatives, neighbours, and, most importantly, myself (wow, shocker, I know). It's hard to go about your day without hearing - or making - such judgments, and sadly, we all are guilty of doing it.

Okay, let's get real. I consider myself to be a pretty good person. I'm flawed, yes. I have issues, yes. But overall, I suppose I'm doing alright. Recently, though, my opinions and judgments of others have caused me to take a step back and reexamine mys…

In the early 2000s, I remember people talking about American Idol. A lot of conversations centered around this relatively new singing competition. "You mean you've never seen it?" people would ask me incredulously. To which I'd reply, "Well, no. It's not really the kind of show I'd watch." That was way back in 2006, and although I was familiar with Kelly Clarkson, Daughtry, Simon Cowell and the infamous bad auditions, American Idol was never the sort of show I'd obsess over.
One May night in 2007, however, I was watching TV and flipping channels when I stumbled upon what happened to be the American Idol Season 6 finale. Curious, I decided to watch the final moments before the winner was crowned. "The winner of American Idol 2007 is...Jordin Sparks!" And instantly, my TV screen was filled with applause, confetti and fireworks, as Jordin Sparks, the pretty seventeen-year old winner, sang her winning song 'This Is My Now' through…

Just a decade ago, it seemed that Disney’s in-house
animation studio, the one that gave us classics like Aladdin and The Lion King, was
doomed. Doomed, because its little brother, Pixar, was churning out critical
and commercial hits one after the other, while Disney was struggling to stay
afloat with Brother Bear and Chicken
Little. Today, thanks to a string of successes that began with Tangled in
2010, and continued with Wreck-It Ralph (2012), Frozen (2013) and Big Hero 6
(2014), Walt Disney Animation Studios is back on top, producing movies that are
widely embraced and universally loved. With 2016’s Zootopia, the trend continues. Not only is Zootopia the studio’s
best of all five aforementioned films, but it raises the bar very, very high
for what constitutes an animated feature.

Anthropomorphic (talking animal) movies aren't a first for Disney, and in this case, Zootopia harks back to Robin Hood from 1973. It's the execution, and the combination of animals in a contemporar…